The Burning of the Red
by Zithpith
Summary: A scholar tries to learn the history of the downfall of Morrowind from one of the few survivors, and discovers remnants of the doom that burned the dark elves. Rated T
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Elderscrolls**

Well this will be my first story on the site, if the description wasn't prof enough. Critiques and comments welcomed.

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The two nords, covered head to toe in thick cloaks, wade through the knee high snow. The biting wind that whips at them might have burned the flesh of other men, mer or beastfolk, but the two continue on untroubled. The smaller of the two stops to look back at the city of Whindhelm, before turning to walk with her companion.

They stop at a small house built next to the river, and the nord man knocks on the door.

The chipped and worn red painted door opens, and standing in the doorway is an ancient and weathered dark elf.

The nord man shakes the elf's hand with a grin.

"Hail again Sai" the young soldier says.

"Good to see you too Free-Winter," says Sai, his red eyes pass from the nord to his companion.

Brunwulf looks to the smaller nord and gestures to Sai.

"My friend this is-,"

"Sai, it is a pleasure to meet you, I'm Mida" Mida interrupts shaking Sai's hand.

"Well she is bold at least. Come in, and don't track snow inside,"

Mida steps inside the cabin, and sets her belongings down on a bench next to a seat.

The interior of the cabin is far more decorated than the exterior. The furniture is in the style of most nord homes, but the walls are lined with carpets and tapestries from Morrowind. The ground is covered in wooden planks with a trap door tucked away in a corner. At the back of the room is a fireplace, not a hearth like most Nordic homes but a small alcove of stone with a fire at its heart. Row upon row of bookshelves line the walls, each cramed with tomes, scrolls and books of every shape and size. Everything was organized and set into its place.

Mida and Brunwulf stand next to the door, while Sai takes a seat in a tall wooden chair in front of the fireplace.

"She is a scholar of history, and she's wanted to meet you for a long time," says Brunwulf.

He looks Mida over for a second, then turns away to warm his hands over his fire.

"I am not interested; I'm far too old to be thinking that far back,"

"It's your choice Sai," Brunwulf says.

Mida takes a step forward and extracts a piece of parchment from her cloak.

"I promise that I won't take too much of your time, and I swear that it is for a good reason,"

Sai sits quietly for a minute, until at last turning to face Mida. His old red eyes almost seem to reflect the light of the fire behind him. Only now does she notice the burns and cuts bellow his neck.

"Why do you want to know my story? It's not a very happy one,"

"I-I know these memories must be painful, but it's a history I have to know. And if I must be honest there are few if any who saw the eruption of the Red Mountain and still live. The study of history has been my life's work, and it will never be complete without a firsthand account of the destruction of Vvardenfell,"

"On one condition,"

"Anything,"

"If I find out that you have altered my story to better entertain your readers, you will learn why we are so famed for our destruction magic,"

"And I would deserve it,"

Sai looks at her befuddled for a second before smiling.

"Well… you took that well. So where do you want me to start?" he asks.

"Well the beginning is a good a place as any,"

"Well the beginning. I guess it happened after we got on the boat. It is something else to see ash and water almost sink a ship. That was when my parents-,"

"Wait," Mida says scribbling some notes a few pages ahead.

"Could we start further back? My readers might want to know what life was like in the isle before the mountain erupted,"

"Ah, now that's a stretch. Well I guess I should start a while before that last part, let's see,"

Sai leans back into his seat and pulls out a bottle of ale from a bag on the table.

"I was the child of a merchant family, along with my sister and brother. Not very rich but we got along well enough, and I learned a thing or two about people from my parents. We lived in Vivic City, close to the water front. My father, Iril, was not a sailor by trade, but he made his living trading with the sailors who came into the city. My mother, Fadali, she was a seamstress. She made her living selling her wares to the nobles of the city,"

He pauses for a second looking at the bottle in his hand.

"Looking back, I guess it was a good childhood,"

Sai looks away out the window for a second before taking a sip of the ale and looking back at Mida.

"Now Where to begin,"


	2. Chapter 2

The markets were busy that day, I and my siblings had gone to buy supplies for my studies. I was studying to become a mage for the great houses at the time.

"Come on hurry up Sai," Morith called out to me.

Morith was running out ahead of us, she always did want to take the lead in everything she did, while Lasil was content to stroll through his life with his face in his books.

Morith looked like a typical dunmer back then, tall thin with a high brow and a pleased self gratifying look wherever she went. Lasil was far shorter than either Morith and I, he was lean but strong, and though he was relaxed he wasn't afraid of many things, though he always did like looking aloof and judging others from a distance. Normally he was always the calmest though he was nervous that day, and had been weeks before then.

Morith stopped at a stall sporting all sorts of gems and crafts. Some shimmered with a very dim light. The store owner didn't raise her head from whatever she was scribbling in a ledger.

Across the street I had noticed someone dressed in ragged robes of a follower of Azura yelling something about the end of the world. He was yelling about fire and brimstone flooding Varenfell and the Ministry of Truth crushing the city. I ignored him, but I did notice that Lasil watched the priest, and looked worried.

I assumed at the time he was just disturbed by the priest, so I tapped his shoulder and pointed him towards the stand.

"Watch this,"

I stepped over to the stall, looking over the gems and picked one up with a smirk.

"This one protects against magic, am I right?"

"Magick regeneration child, try again when you know what you're doing," the store owner said.

I picked up another pendant, a small silver necklace studded with a dark red ruby.

"Protection against cold, right?"

The store owner looks up and cracks a small smile. She takes the pendant back and stands up to put it away.

"Second chances don't count for much,"

"Come on, let's keep going," Lasil said.

The store owner put the pendant up on a shelf as Morith laughed at me, when the ground shook. All eyes turned to the source of the shudder, the Red Mountain far off in the distance. We had to climb to the roofs to get a good sight of it, and how I wished I hadn't.

A thin plume of smoke rose from its peak, and clouds of ash slowly swirled over Vivic and all of Vardenfell.

That night I felt more than alittle uneasy when I went to bed, like someone was watching me. My parents thought nothing of it, and neither did Morith. Lasil looked worried, but just said to pray to Azura for peace, like always. When I drifted to sleep I dreamed, and I can still remember it to this day.

I dreamt of the halls of the Ministry of Truth, a large circular room with a raised stone pedestal covered in etched runes, surrounded by open air. Along the left wall are mausoleums of the dead dug into the walls, and as I followed the walls there were more mausoleums, but unused. In the divide a dunmer lies on a slab of stone, bound by her arms and legs. I don't remember if I recognized her. A stream of magick flows from her to the pedestal in the center of the room, and I realized I must have dreamed of the room where souls were drained to keep the Ministry afloat.

I heard a scream come from bellow, floating up from the open space around the alter. As I watched a dunmer levitated up to the pedestal, wielding a black curved blade drenched in blood. He slices at the pedestal and the rock shatters. The flow of magick stops, and the man runs to the woman. The room shakes and rock cracks as the magic stops. Screams come from beneath, not just the floor beneath, but the city as well.

I scream out something, but neither hear me, and as the Ministry plummets downward cobwebs fill my vision as I woke up screaming. When my father asked me what had happened and I told him it was a dream, he told me to go back to sleep and not to think more of it. Even then I could tell that he was afraid too.

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This chapter was a pain to put up, I went back and forth on whether to put this one or the third chapter in its place for a while.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day I still went to my trainer, Master Sul was never an easy one to scare away and I didn't want to look weak.

I walked into his home, a small and cramped shack on outskirts of the city, built up on stilts in some vague reference to the Telvanni mage towers.

Sul was outside, gesturing for a scamp to fetch him scrolls from inside. As I walked closer he turned and waved at me.

"Good to see you today Sai, I thought you might have been buried in ash on the way here,"

"Um, no I was alright, you aren't worried though? Everyone's been talking as if the mountain might erupt,"

"Might, it hasn't yet. Until then I have work to do,"

The scamp returned with a pair of scrolls that it handed to Sul.

"What are you working on?" I asked as I watched him study the scrolls.

"Nothing, nothing at all," he said putting the scrolls underneath his robes.

"Alright, where is Yandi? I didn't say goodbye to her last time I was here,"

Sul looked at me for a moment before turning back to the scamp and telling it to leave.

"Yandil… she was taken to the Ministry,"

I looked back to the city, and the island city hovering over it, the Ministry of Truth. The city had become a dark place ever since the god ruler Vivic left. His magic was all that kept the city afloat, and with his departure the Ministry had to resort to darker means of keeping the island afloat. Most whispered that they used soul powered magic to keep the island afloat.

"I'm sorry," is all I could say.

His frown contorted his face in such a way that I thought it looked familiar. It was only later that I remembered it was the face of the man from my dream.

"… I'm sorry but I don't think I can teach you destruction today,"

"But you were going to teach me how to chain the lightning, I even practiced on-,"

Sul climbed into his house and returned with a scroll. A large bundle is tied behind his back. As he approached the air around me became cold, and the blood froze in my veins.

"Um, Master what is that on your back?"

"A delivery for someone, you should keep more focused on your studies. What you shouldn't do is practice such a high level destruction spell by yourself, take this and don't do anything harder until I come back,"

The scroll was a simple electricity spell, something that I had mastered long ago.

"You're going on a trip?"

"Of sorts, until then try to keep safe, and don't burn your siblings,"

On that night I was walking through the halls of my house, when that Lasil ran to me.

"Hello brother, where have you been?"

"At Sul's house, what were you doing?"

"I was just… I was just praying,"

I noticed a small statuette Lasil held in his hand of Azula, a star with a swirling center.

"Would you… would you stay for a moment?" asked Lasil.

I looked up and down the halls before sitting down next to my brother. He bowed his head and I could hear him mutter a short prayer. I bent my head too, but I didn't pray.

Not that I didn't believe in Azura, faith is not important for deadra worshipers. We know they exist, sometime you can even speak with them. I just never thought she cared for her "cursed" followers.

I open my eyes to look at my hands, I never thought much about my past before the eruption. I remembered from my history books that the curse came from the murder of the fourth of the god-like Tribunal, Nerevar. Though one thing about the history books, they never could decide on one story. Some say he fell at the hands of the dwemer, others say it was at the hands of his advisors, but no matter how the story it always ends the same way. Azura came and cursed our eyes to turn red like the fire of the Red Mountain, and their skin as dark as its ash.

They were not lessons that warmed me to the idea of worshiping her.

"Hey brother, I've… I've got a bad feeling about this," Lasil said.

He still looked at the star in his hand as he talked to me.

"I think we are all on edge,"

"No, not nervous, I just feel like… never mind,"

I didn't press him, I had learned better than that long before. My father came around the corner, and carrying a pendant of Azura. He asked Lasil to follow him, and the two whispered for a while out of earshot.

That night during dinner my father said that we were charted for a ship to the mainland. It seemed like this was as much a surprise to my mother as it was to me, and afterwards the two left to their room and left me and my siblings to talk among ourselves.

I remember standing in our room, listening to our parents talking in the next room. Arguing whether to stay or flee with the others. It wasn't a choice of course, but I guess they felt like they had to make themselves believe they had one.

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Well this chapter took far longer than it should have, but now it's done and I promise that next chapter mountains will start erupting.


	4. Chapter 4

Is this up to chapter 4 already? Well this looks like it'll be longer than I thought at first. Hope you like this next chapter.

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A day later we were charted for a ship bound for the main land. It was a long time before we were packed and ready to leave, so we were among the last to leave. We took a silt strider down to the docks where a ship waited for us, looking like a floating fortress of wood and cloth. I recognized it as an Imperial cargo ship, it's sides rose up into a wall of wood and its three massive sales blocked out the sky with sheets of white. High above the sails is a red flag with a black dragon, the symbol of the Empire.

Lasil looked backwards, and he walked slowly behind us as we walked towards the ship.

Father looked back at him, and pulled him closer.

"Isn't it a beautiful ship Lasil? The Silt Skimmer,"

"Yes it's very beautiful, um… father do we have to leave?"

"Yes, for the moment Lasil,"

"So when are we coming back?"

I never heard my father answer that question.

On the deck an imperial and dunmer guard waved us onboard after looking at our papers for a second.

We were herded into the storage hold with a dozen other families and their animals, and we laid on piles of hay and leather to sleep.

I was fiddling with my bed when I heard Morith climbing out to the deck. I followed her out, and found her at the prow looking out over the ocean ahead. The air whipped around the sails above, and the ship rocked up and down over the waves.

"Morith! Come on back inside, the weather could turn bad quickly,"

I looked up to the clouded sky, as if expecting something to come out of the clouds of ash.

"I couldn't sleep, it's too small down there," Morith said.

"It is, but it's better than the weather up here," I said looking up to the rain clouds above.

"I don't know about that,"

"What is it?"

"It's just that… lately Lasil has been different. Usually he was the one to take the cynicism out of me and make you stop moping. And now with all this, I just need a moment alone,"

The storm starts picking up and I walked up next to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Come on Morith, you're not staying out here,"

"Just leave me alone for a moment please,"

"Stop fooling around and come on, we need to get back inside now," I said with a bit of panic in my voice.

I was more than alittle shaken seeing Morith of all people like this.

"Says who? You're not my boss, get your hand off me,"

I would have said something when Morith's face turned pale as she looked passed me.

She turned me around and pointed back to the city. The Ministry of Truth, fell. It didn't fall slowly like the paintings might have you think of it as a graceful fall. It crashed into the city bellow, and a bright light burst from it, so harsh I had to turn away.

I didn't see what happened next, but I felt it. The city exploded, and the shock made me shake and I had to grab onto the railings to keep myself from falling over.

When I turned to look again the city was gone, just smoking ruins and fire. Just like that, in an instant the jewel of Vvardenfell, the city of one of the tribunals was wiped from the world in a moment. A bright white light illuminated the ruins, but it was soon eclipsed by the growing red from the mountain.

A sound like a thousand thunder strikes shook my bones. The air vibrated and the ship strained under the sound. The Mountain had erupted, spraying a thick cloud of ash high into the sky and spilling magma over the island. As I watched the ash clouds grew thicker, and so much ash fell that the ship turned as black as my skin.

Then the waves came. The foamy ash heavy water washed over the walls of the ship with ease, washing aside mer, man, furniture and animal alike. I and Morith ran back to the lower cabins to awake our family, but we met with flooded hallways and rooms.

"Mother, Father, Lasil! Are you there?"

"We're here," came my mother's voice over the shouting and pounding of waves.

The three swam out of their room, abandoning everything we've ever owned.

We made it to the lifeboats before they could cast off, and got onto one being loaded by the crew.

I jumped in first, Morith and Lasil clambered in behind me. Iril and Fadali were close behind us, but a wave knocked the boat and them into the water. The ropes holding the life boat to the ship snapped, and we plunged into the ocean.

We were almost flooded with ash thick water, but somehow we didn't sink. My parents, they weren't as lucky.

I stood up, looking over the foaming water for any signs of limbs or arms poking out of the surface. I thought I saw something, an arm or a head, rising out of the water before disappearing back under.

"Is that them?" Lasil said next to me.

"I-I don't know,"

"Hold on!" Lasil called out trying to jump over the edge of the life boat.

I and Morith had to hold down Lasil from jumping in to find them, just as another wave came over the lifeboat. I looked back, and saw nothing but thick black water.

I'm not sure when the crying stopped, or how long the storm lasted, we fell asleep amid the wind and rain and tears.


	5. Chapter 5

"I… I'm sorry for your loss," Mida says.

"It was… painful, but it was a long time ago, and my parents spirits are at rest. I can't ask for more… you want something to eat before I continue?" Sai says, even though he shakes as if he is cold.

"There's more?"

"Of course, or do you want me to end the story with three orphans trapped on a life boat in the middle of the Sea of Morrowind?"

"Of course not, don't worry about my hunger the story is food enough for my ears,"

Brunwulf yawns in the corner of the room where he had decided to act as a support for the wall.

"If you don't mind I have heard this story before, and it still depresses me. Can you can find your way back to the tavern from here?"

"Easily, thank you again for leading me here Free-Winter,"

"Think nothing of it," Brunwulf said and left letting in a gust of ice and snow.

"Where did you meet him?" Mai asks.

"Brunwulf? I've known that little nord since he was a child, he was born just before I came here, him and his brother"

"Well it seems that he's a good man,"

"He is, but too brave for his own good, bad time to be a soldier with this war against the high elves and their Dominion on the horizon,"

Sai stares off into the middle distance, and Mai has to wave her hand infront of his face to get his attention.

"Oh, right where was I? Oh yes, we had just gotten to the hard part of this story,"

I awoke to find Morith and Lasil asleep, cuddled around me in a corner of the lifeboat. I looked out across the ocean, and saw nothing. No ships, no lifeboats, nothing but the clouds of ash above and the black water bellow.

I sat by myself for a while searching the surface of the water, maybe hopping that the impossible had happened. More likely to wipe the tears away, I don't remember. By the time the sun rose to its peak I walked over to my siblings and shook them awake. The first thing Morith asked me was why the boat was so wet.

Afterwards I found a bucket tucked under one of the seats of the lifeboat and we started draining.

That was the first time we saw one of those things. Morith was leaning over the edge of the boat to dump a bucket full of ash and water, when Lasil saw something. He pulled Mortih back just as a slaughterfish flew through the air she was a moment ago. Now these are not the tame small slaughterfish of shallow lakes and rivers, those that live in the deep waters grow to be far larger. This one was as big as me, and in the moment I saw it fly by I saw into its eyes, and it looked back at me like how you look at a slice of meat.

It landed back in the water, and started circling the boat.

"Morith are you alright?" Lasil asked her as I watched the fish circle the ship.

"I'm fine, really,"

"It's still here," I said pointing out the creature.

"Well can you do anything about that?"

"How about this?"

A bolt of electricity forms in my hand, and going through all the steps I remembered I launched the spell forward. The bolt of electricity seared into the water, though it was really more of a light show that wouldn't have hurt anything bigger than a fly, it scared the creature enough for it to keep its distance.

I turned back, and was surprised to see Lasil gripping Morith tightly and crying.

"I'm alright now let me go you're hurting me," said Morith.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything," Lasil said letting his hold on Morith loosen but he didn't let go.

"Sorry for a slaughterfish? Sai I think Lasil has lost it,"

"I-It's my fault, I knew. I had dreams about the city falling, burning away. I knew weeks ago and I didn't say anything," said Lasil.

"Lasil what are you talking about?"

"I… I've been having visions, seeing Azura speak to me in them. She told me to run, to leave, saying that I should run by myself if I had to. And I didn't say anything,"

Morith tensed for a second, before grabbing Lasil by the collar and nearly throttling him.

"Why wouldn't you tell us something like that?!"

I knew why, and I suspect that Morith did as well. Azura wasn't worshiped amoung us as much as Mal-,"

"I did, but they didn't believe me. They said that their dreams were calm,"

"Then why did father say that we were leaving yesterday?"

"I think he said that Mal- showed him a dream of the city's fall the night before, and he wanted to know if I still had my dreams,"

Morith let go of Lasil, and sat down on the far side of the lifeboat, I realized that I had been clenching my fists to punch him. I looked away from my brother to the sea around us. The slaughterfish was still out there, circling the ship.

But it wasn't the slaugtherfish that made us cling to the lifeboat in fear; it was our thirst. Our lips were already cracking open and we hadn't had a drink of water since the day before. We were really and truly tempted to drink the water straight from the ocean, ash and salt and everything. In some ways that slaughterfish saved us from doing something that stupid.

As we lay together looking up at the sky, Morith turned her head to look at me.

"Couldn't you have learned some alteration while you were at Sul's home? I bet he could make clean water in a second,"

"I-I have an idea," said Lasil.

He dipped the bucket into the water and set it down in the middle of the life boat. He took my shirt from where it hung and draped it over the bucket.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I heard about this from some of the sailors, just heat up the water,"

Now a funny thing about dunmer, we may have a natural gift for destruction magic, but that doesn't mean we have better control, it's just more potent. I put my hands on the bucket, and a ball of fire consumed it. We had to dump it into the water before it set the entire lifeboat aflame.

"S-sorry," was all I could say as we waited for the bucket to stop steaming.

After we pulled it back and Lasil set up his experiment again I put my hands a good distance from the bucket and let the heat flow. Soon enough the water started to boil and steam rose, and water formed on the shirt.

Lasil rung it out into the bucket after we emptied if of ash and sea water. Lasil was the first to try it, he coughed and nearly spit it back out, but he said it was drinkable. We were sick for the next few days, but we lived.

As we lay sprawled in various positions on the boat, I was laying on the prow looking out ahead of the boat. When I saw something massive and brown swimming beneath the water. I called out to my siblings, who crawled over to me moaning the whole way.

"What is it?" Morith asked.

"Look down there,"

She did look down, and so did Lasil. They both stopped complaining for a moment.

"I-Is that what I think it is?"

"It's big that's for sure,"

I looked back, and sure enough the hazy shape was growing closer, and bigger. When it surfaced the brown carapace sprayed water over the boat, showering us in water.

"A sea strider," I almost whispered in amazement.

The aquatic relative of the gigantic silt striders, the creature easily dwarfed their tiny lifeboat, and each of its thin but long membraned limbs ended in rudders to push it along. The creature's tiny head turned to gaze on us for a second, before diving back down into the depths. It rose up again a few miles away from us, before descending and disappearing entirely.

We watched it go, until we realized what it's passing meant.

Trailing behind the sea strider, was a large pack of slauterfish, waiting to catch any fish spooked by the passing of the giant. When they found our lifeboat, they turned away, and circled us.

The boat bobbed as one bumped against it. I'm not sure which of us screamed, or at least who screamed the loudest, but I nearly got on my knees to pray to Azura.

The slaughterfish leaped out of the water at me, and I saw it come within an inch of my face, when Morith bashed t aside with the bucket midair. The monster of a fish crashed into the boat, and Morith beat it again and again until it was still. Lasil kept down underneath the seats of the lifeboat until the slauterfish stopped moving, and he ran over to Morith to look over her.

She was shaking, but otherwise she wasn't hurt.

I just stood still, maybe in fear, maybe in awe. I knew Morith was always fast and strong for her age, but I never suspected that.

As I stood paralyzed another slaughterfish jumped out of the water towards Lasil and Morith. I more reacted than thought the spell that came to mind.

I could almost taste the magick as it made sparks fly in my hand. I put my hand forward, and the bolt of lightning struck the slaughterfish before it reached them. This spell turned out to be far more than a light show, and the slaughterfish landed on top of the lifeboat with a smoldering wound.

The rest of the school started jumping out, whipped into a frenzy by the smell of blood.

I shot another bolt of lightning, but I wasn't so driven by fear that I couldn't see that it wouldn't hold them all back. I called up my lessons, trying to remember that branch of lightning destruction he taught me. The lightning bolt strikes the water, and arcs over its surface. In a flash the water around the little boat shines with the light of a thousand tiny bolts of electricity. The slaughterfish twitch and thrash in the water, a few throw themselves against the walls of the boat but none manage to jump over the walls.

"Sai! Why didn't you tell me you could do something so awe-," Morith stopped midsentence.

Both Lasil and Morith's eyes turn to me, and I barely realized what they were looking at until I looked down at myself.

My body bellow my right arm was burned and seared. I wonder for a moment how I didn't notice that earlier before I collapsed, and my world turned black.

I don't remember most parts of the dream that followed, but what I do remember… it still frightens me.

I only remember a voice, saying something at the end of a sentence.

"-o then child, seek out what is mine, and bathe it in the blood of kin and foe,"

I never could shake the feeling that I had made a deal I would regret.

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Not much to say for this chapter other than this one just feels right. Right length right tone right- alright I'll shut up and let you read.


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